Since 2001 I have been a Shrek fan, loved the animated movie so much, the characters but more importantly it was one of the first modern fairy tales of the 20th and 21st century. I've watched all four of the movies and the spin-off movie Puss In Boots. But there's one thing I would never thought of...a musical version of the first movie. What? Just in case you guys don't know what Shrek is about here's a brief summary: Shrek, an ogre, embarks on a journey with a donkey to rescue Princess Fiona from a vile lord and regain his swamp. OK this is what happened about three years ago this coming summer. I was looking for musical/s to see with my sister after we saw Dracula, The Addams Family musical and Into The Woods musical between in 2017 and I thought "Theater Royal hasn't got any good on next year. I wonder what's on at Leeds" and I went on the website and thought "So far there's nothing me or my sister would fancy to see" that is until I saw Shrek The Musical and then I thought "Hang on a minuet here's something that me and my sister would fancy seeing. I'll have to ask my sister if she fancies it too" which she did and booked the tickets. But there's was one set back, the matinee show we booked for was on 5th January...2019!!! Which means then we have to wait two years to see it because it was the 2018-19 tour. But it was worth it. Here's the cast of Shrek The Musical at Leeds Grand Theatre:
Shrek:
Stefan Harri
Princess Fiona:
Call The Midwife's Laura Main
Donkey:
Marcus Ayton
Lord Farquaad:
Samuel Holmes
Fun fact about Lord Farquaad, his dad is actually Grumpy and his mother is Snow White. They were a great cast.
I remember when the day finally came, me and my sister decided to get the bus into Leeds because of the Northern Rail strike that's been taking almost every weekend that year. We went to Five Guys for lunch because it's quite close to the Leeds Grand Theater. After lunch we made our way to the theater with a minor delay and took our seats in the middle seats of row D of the dress circle which happened to be the same seats me and my sister sat in when we went to see Rocky Horror in November 2016. I at first asked myself when I saw the stage "why is there a large book in the middle of the stage?" which turned out to be part of the opening song. As soon as the doors closed and the lights were about to dim the announcer said "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. We welcome you to Leeds Grand Theater. I would like to remind everyone to please turn off your phones and the use of recording devices is forbidden during the show. If you refuse my friend the Ogre will leap off the stage, lift you from your seat, and drag you far, far, away. Please enjoy Shrek The Musical."
List of songs:
Act 1:
1. Overture/Big Bright Beautiful World
2. Story Of My Life
3. Don't Let Me Go
4. I Know It's Today
5. What's Up, Duloc
6. Travel Song
7. Forever
8. This Is How A Dream Comes True
9. Who I'd Be
Act 2:
1. Morning Person
2. I Think I Got You Beat
3. The Ballad Of Farquaad
4. Make A Move
5. When Words Fail
6. Morning Person (Reprise)
7. Build A Wall
8. Freak Flag
(This song is just like Frozen's Let It Go and The Greatest Showman's This Is Me as it is a song about being proud to be different)
9. Big Bright Beautiful World (Reprise)
10. This Is Our Story
11. I'm A BelieverTotal songs: 20 songs
This musical had a lot of production references:
Puss In Boots made a cameo appearance during the Travel Song where Shrek, Donkey and Puss see each other and Puss tip his hat to them and walks away. A bunny screams after Shrek calls it delicious.
Just like in the first film Shrek ends the Travel Song with "That'll do Donkey. That'll do" which is a reference to famer Hoggett's line from the movie Babe.
In "I Know It's Today" and "This is How A Dream Comes True," Fiona sings "Are you there, God, it's me, Fiona?" which is similar to the book entitled "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" by Judy Blum.
In "Morning Person," much of the part where Fiona dances with the mice is reminiscent of the nightclub scene in Bob Fosse's "Sweet Charity."
Most of the spoken lines are taken from the first film, including the Muffin Man scene between Farquaad and Gingy, and Fiona explaining the curse to Donkey.
Welcome to Duloc" is the only original song from the film sung in the musical. It is now "What’s Up, Duloc" and is sung by the Duloc Dancers, who resemble the puppets that sing it in the film.
Originally the song "I'm A Believer" was instrumentally after the curtain call, but since 2009 it has been performed by the cast of Shrek The Musical at the end of the performance.
At the end of "What's up, Duloc?" (Reprise), Lord Farquaad references Defying Gravity from Wicked, when he sings "...and no ones gonna bring me down!" followed by he famous ending note. Also, the oft-repeated line 'Hey-nonny-nonny-nonny-no' is taken from the song "Shy" from Once Upon A Matress.
At the end of "Forever", the Dragon's final line is a reference to the Dreamgirls song "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going". In some adaptations of this song in later productions, the Dragon performer appears alongside the puppet (in the UK including the show me and my sister saw, the performer sang off-stage.)
During "Story of My Life", one of the show's musical numbers, Mama Bear sings "Mama's in the mud, Mama's in distress," which is a nod to the song "Rose's Turn" from the musical Gypsy.
During "Freak Flag" a lag is waved around with a face on it, which resembles the famous logo of young Cosette from Les Misérables which is accompanied by a dance similar to "Do you hear the people sing?".
During a part of "Don't Let Me Go" on the national tour, Donkey sings to the music of "Take Me or Leave Me" and "I'll Cover You" from Rent. He also makes a reference to "La Vie Boheme" from the same musical while chanting things and marching across the stage in the bridge of the song.
During "What's Up, Duloc?," the ensemble reference the musical Chicago.
During a part of "Don't Let Me Go" original Broadway recording, Donkey makes reference to "Part Of Your World" from Little Mermaid.
Donkey sings to Shrek "Don't speak, don't speak, don't speak," referencing Dianne Wiest and John Cusack in "Bullets Over Broadway."
The opening of "Who I'd Be" is reminiscent of "Bring Him Home" from 'Les Misérables.
The musical had funny moments:
Travel Song: a cow jumping over a moon, a dish and a spoon running away whilst being pursued by a police carriage and finally a giraffe and gazelles which look like the gazelle wheel in The Lion King sang "As I was walking in the jungle. I saw a green man and a donkey" which all three of them made me laugh till my sides got sore.
Farquaad arrival: when Farquaad arrived to pick up Fiona in the Broadway version called his horse "plastic horse" whereas when me and my sister saw it he called his horse "Brexit". He just went "Whoa, Brexit" me, my sister and the entire audience laughed.
This musical has a great message of celebrating inner beauty and accepting that everyone is different their unique ways in a funny way.